


Petals of the White Lotus

by GuestPlease



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: #GranGranDeservesBetter2020, ALSO I have heard many people saying Aunt Wu should be in the White Lotus, Gen, I got all the minor characters I could, I'm going to add more tags as I go along methinks, Order of the White Lotus, and the white lotus has a lot of members on the ground, that's good I'm dialling that up to 10, to make up for the sausagefest that is the white lotus, you know you don't have to be a warrior to be useful in a war
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:15:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27704006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuestPlease/pseuds/GuestPlease
Summary: "All old people know each other, don't you know that?"Not just the warriors. Not just the men. These are the stories of some old (and not so old, given that they do need more than just the elderly) women in the White Lotus.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 12





	Petals of the White Lotus

No one had really asked her when she had joined the White Lotus. Generally, when other members thought of her, it was to decide that she had been asked to join in lieu of Chief Hakoda leaving—and being fairly young, and dedicated to his own idea of helping the world anyway.

The reality was, she had been asked when she was young, and travelling across the world. When their order had not been stretched so thin, or focused to a razor’s edge. Back then, it had just been a community, trying to make the world a better place in the face of everything.

She did not generally like to reach out to order channels, because really, what could they do for her? (In reality, the order was how she kept her village alive, having them send down the traders to know that they even _had_ things to trade. It was how she taught her grandchildren to read and write the Earth Kingdom language, it was how she got maps for Sokka to peruse. But, there was not even a whisper of a water-bending teacher for Katara. Not after what happened to Kya.)

What had happened to Kya was something that Kanna carried with her every day. Officially, the reason was because they had asked the Northern Water Tribe through the regular channels, and had been betrayed. Unofficially, Kanna blamed herself, because she had not asked with the Lotus beforehand. Unofficially, there was a spy in the Southern Water Tribe, and Kanna had fished him out and struck, even if the idiot hadn’t mentioned that it was Katara, a baby. The cold revenge didn’t bring Kya back, but it did protect Katara. And that was all that mattered.

Until.   
Until the Avatar—because who else could the little airbender boy be? Stuck in an iceberg? She was no fool—until the boy reappeared. And then, like an avalanche gaining speed, everything happened so quickly. The Grand Lotus, who had thus far managed to keep his stupid nephew from bothering their village—because a teenager’s vain quest for someone thought long dead was not worth reminding them of what they’d lost, and the Grand Lotus _understood that_ —failed. The stupid boy came, and grabbed her, and she managed to play the foolish, scared old woman and not the leader of the Southern Water Tribe.

The stupid boy played with fire, and scared the children, and all at once she was reminded that she wasn’t a bender. But neither was Sokka, and he had still tried to defend them all. She could throw a boomerang too, to keep her family—not just Sokka and Katara, but the family she had made in the South—safe. To keep them from being led onto ships and taken away.

The stupid boy took the avatar, clearly holding him to his word. The avatar, whether he was trying to assuage her grandchildren’s fears or not, implied he would come back. And Kanna, who knew well what twelve year old boys were like when they set their minds to something, feared he would. Which could then launch a retaliation if the stupid boy felt betrayed enough by their ‘deal’.

So, while Katara and Sokka—mostly Sokka, because her boy was a planner—schemed to get the little avatar back, she readied the rest of the tribe to move further inland. The official reason was that the jagged crack from the ship would only cause trouble, but she saw in the eyes of the women that they understood. Their safety depended on a firebender and an airbender’s sense of honor, and that was too tenuous a string to risk them all for. The string didn’t snap, but it pulled, and she watched her grandchildren leave anyway, following the iron ships. Presumably, heading to the North, so that Katara could finally be trained.

Kanna didn’t know if her leaving had made an impact (doubtful), but she felt a sense of shame wash over her as she realized that she had not told those children anything. She had not told Katara what to expect—their ‘intercepted’ letter had indeed been very vague, so that the waterbender would come and more or less be forced to teach her, or go home for nothing. She had not told her grandchildren that they could go to Yugoda, or to find her brother’s family, if they still lived.

She had not warned her granddaughter about Pakku, who she was well aware was still throwing himself about like a moping penguin-otter, instead of realizing that she was a part of the same organization and had kept tabs on him because of it. Ah, well. A sad penguin-otter on the other side of the world wasn’t her business, and perhaps he would not punish Katara for having her face. (Doubtful, again). This was more likely; Katara would slap him with water-bending the way that Kanna would have done herself, had she had the gift.

Kanna smiled to herself as she packed up her tent, because the image of her little waterbender smacking the shit out of that man was far better than thinking about how she’d let them off into the world alone, like baby turtle-squids toddling towards the sea. But that was unhelpful, so she saved that for dark moments when she was all alone and would not be distracted.

And besides, the White Lotus gave her frequent updates, up until the mopey penguin-otter himself slunk in, and told her that her darling, wonderful waterbender had turned them upside down up North and nearly beaten him in a duel. (He didn’t say it like that, but she _knew_ her girl had had him on his toes.) She laughed at that, and then made him a conciliatory dinner to make up for it.

He proposed five more times before she said she would think about it, and only even do anything about the thinking once her chicks were gathered under her wings again, like an arctic hen. She was unimpressed when Sokka and Katara congratulated her on her marriage, but at least they were back, safe, whole, happy.

Even if they did bring the stupid avatar and the stupid boy back with them.

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I'm not saying she WON'T marry Pakku, just that it would probably be a lot more... eventual. 
> 
> You're telling me Master Pakku left in like... let's say February/March, sailed the length of the world, reconnected better than they ever connected in the first place, married her (without her family there), and got back to Ba Sing Se to do White Lotus business by high summer? Nah.
> 
> #GranGranDeservesBetter2020 <\-- let's make this happen with the Avatar renaissance.


End file.
